


The Pills

by Tigger_14



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst I guess, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Fluff, He's just trying to get better, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Klance in later chapters, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, M/M, Medications, set during season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-02-06 00:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12805266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigger_14/pseuds/Tigger_14
Summary: Lance is tired of his ADHD causing him to mess up during battles and life in general so he gets alien pills to help him focus. Should be fine. Right? Right. Absolutely.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea a while ago and finally got my shit together and finished the first chapter. So, enjoy. More notes at the bottom.

Lance stood outside the shop in the Space Mall, debating whether or not he should actually go in. He didn’t really want to go in, but he knew it was in his best interest that he did. He was sick of being himself and always being told to focus more, pay attention. As if it were that easy. He was also tired of blaming himself, of wishing that he could just focus on one thing, he thought things were getting better, until Pidge got hurt. He can’t let her on anyone else get hurt again. He just wanted to be normal and accepted and appreciated, but when had those things every happened to him, besides from his Mama, of course. He wasn’t with his Mama though and she wasn’t here to help him, so he would have to make due. Lance remembers the final straw that brought him here; it was two weeks ago, another battle with a Galra fleet.

 

            _The alarms went off in the middle of the night. Lance had been sleeping soundly, but shot awake when he heard the alarms. He quickly threw on his blue Paladin armor, grabbed his bayard, and raced out of his room to the control room. Running down the hall, he met up with Hunk and they both ran to the control room; the rest were already there._

_“Ahh, there you are Hunk, Lance.” Coran stated._

_Allura nodded, “Yes, now that we are all here, the Galra are attacking a planet nearby. You all need to get to your lions and stop them.”_

_They all nodded and raced off to their hangars. Lance whooped on his way to Blue “Are you guys ready to kick some Galra butt!?”_

_“Um, I don’t know if I’m ready per se. Considering these are angry purple cat people who want to kill us. Or capture us.” Hunk stated_

_Getting into his lion and flying out of the hangar, Lance rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but, Hunk, think of the parade they might throw us once we win. I wonder if there will be floats or balloons. I used to like those on earth. The big balloons in parades. Oh, and maybe there will be cheerlea-.”_

_“Lance, would you please focus? This is an important battle and we need to pay attention and be focused.” Shiro stated, cutting Lance off._

_“As if you’d even get a cheerleader.” Pidge snickered._

_“I could get a cheerleader!” Lance yelled back indignantly. Slouching a little in his seat and pouting._

_“It’s not about the glory, Lance. Focus on the mission.” Keith said._

_“I am focused, Mullet. Stay in your own lion.”_

_They made it to the planet that was under attack and started fighting off the Galra. Lance tried to stay focused on the battle in front of him, but his mind kept wandering to the possibility of a parade or a party in their honor. Thinking about the different people to meet, maybe someone nice to dance with. The battle raged on around him, Lance dodging shots and dishing them out. He continuously let out little whoops and cheers when he successfully took down a Galra ship and his mind going back to a Paladin Party after each successful shot. The battle was coming to an end, all of the ships almost taken down, when suddenly one of the ships let out a giant blast that headed straight for Green and Pidge. Lance tried to call out to her, to warn her, but because he wasn’t paying attention like he should have been, he was too late. Lance could hear the shouts of the other Paladins, but he was frozen in shock, his thoughts running wild._

How could this happen? How could she get hurt? How could I let her get hurt? I was supposed to have her back. I’m supposed to have all their backs. How am I supposed to be the sharpshooter, the support, if I can’t pay attention?

_“Lance!”_

_Lance broke out of his thoughts to the sound of the others yelling his name, telling him the battle was over and Shiro was hauling Green and Pidge back to the castle and that he needed to get back too. He went back to the castle in a daze. He couldn’t get it out of his head that it was his fault Pidge got hurt, he was supposed to watch out for her. Lance was shaking as he got out of his lion and made his way slowly back to the control room. Lance wishes he had just went to his room instead._

_“Lance! What the hell was that!?” Yelled Keith, getting straight in Lance’s face. “You were supposed to watch our backs! You should have seen that ship coming for Pidge!”_

_Shiro walked up to Keith and pulled him back from Lance. “While his tactic is a bit much, Keith is right, Lance. You need to focus in battle.” Shiro folded his arms and gave Lance that dreaded disappointed dad look. Lance hated that look, especially when it was directed at him._

_“I’m sorry. I-I…is Pidge okay?” Lance whispers, looking up at Shiro with slightly misty eyes._

_Shiro sighs and drops his arms, “She’s in a pod. She’ll be out in a while. She’ll be fine.” He turns from Lance and looks at the rest of the team. “The planet is safe now. Lets all get some rest.” Lance stares at the ground and numbly nods. He feels like such an asshole._

Keith is right. Some sharpshooter I am. _Shiro gives him a pat on the shoulder as he walks by, but says nothing as he walks by. Keith shoots him a dirty look, but says nothing. Allura and Coran follow out; Coran offering a small smile, Allura looking straight ahead._

_“Look, man, I know you didn’t mean to. We all know you didn’t mean to. It’s just. You really got to pay attention, you know? Try not to let your thoughts get away from you and focus more.” Lance knows that Hunk is trying to be helpful, but he as unhelpful as ever._

_“I know, I’m trying. You know I’m trying, Hunk.” Lance hates that he’s pleading for his best friend to believe him._

_Hunk looks at him sadly, “I know. Just try a little harder, okay?” With that, Hunk walks out of the room._

_“Yeah. Okay.”_

 It’s weird, he thinks, walking into this alien pharmacy in the space mall, it looks so much like a pharmacy back on earth, but different too. There are some things that he recognizes, some he thinks he does, and some he definitely doesn’t. _I wonder how many aliens come here looking for stuff? Do they always have what they need? I wonder how far some of them travel? Its lucky we were so close to the mall and I was able to sneak away for a bit. I’m sure they won’t notice I’m gone. Maybe they’ll be happy it’s finally quiet and there’s no more stupid jokes._ Lance shakes himself to get rid of his thoughts and continues walking back to alien at the register.

 “What can I help you with?’ The alien says. Lance notices that he’s (at least he thinks its male, judging by its deep voice) got four arms, each arm has a hand with a thumb and three fingers. He’s tall, taller than Lance, and has blue skin and two very big eyes that peer straight at Lance like he’s trying to determine what exactly might be wrong with Lance just by looking at him. Lance taps the fingers of his right on his thigh nervously and clears his throat.

 “Um, hi. I was just looking for some type of medicine, like a pill or something, that will help me focus? Like, I need something that will calm the thoughts in my head and help them to slow down and stuff? Maybe also something that will help me sit still for longer then five minutes too? Do you have anything like that?” Lance rambles off nervously. Each sentence sounding like a question. He starts shuffling his feet and looking around, not focusing on any one thing.

 The alien looks at him up and down and notices his constant movement. “You seem like the type to be a bit over active. You say need something to help you focus better?” Lance nods. “Okay. I think I’ve got something that will help.” He comes out form behind the counter (Lance notices that he’s got two legs) and leads lance down an aisle full of medications. He stops at one and hands it to Lance.

 “This should help. You’re human right?” Lance’s head shoots up and gives a startled little squeak. “Woah, its okay. I kinda figured,” he shrugs and Lance nods, because yes, he is human and its kinds dumb that he didn’t expect the alien to know that when there is literally an Earth store with pictures of humans in it a couple of stores down. He mentally rolls his eyes at himself. The alien hands him the bottle and starts speaking again. “This should work fine, help you focus, be a little calmer. Its kinda stronger on humans so you may need to take a lower dosage than what’s on the bottle, take one pill instead of two and you should be fine. Watch out for side affects, you know, the regular.” He shrugs and Lance figures that “the regular” are just like the ones he had when he was at home and used to take meds so he knows what to watch out for.

 “Thank you. I’ll take a couple bottles. I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back and get more.” The alien nods and Lance grabs six more bottles off the shelf and follows the alien over to the counter to pay. He uses the money Coran gave him to spend and he’s glad that he didn’t spend it all on stupid souvenirs (even though some of them were really pretty). Taking his bag, he leaves the store. As he’s walking out he hears, “I hope the medicine works for you, Blue Paladin. May you find the focus you need to defeat the Galra.”

 Lance gives a shaky smile. He just hopes that he can too.

 Arriving back at the castle, Lance docks Blue in her hangar, pats her on the paw and makes his way quietly back to his room. Not so surprisingly, he makes it back to his room without seeing anyone. _They didn’t even notice I was gone…._ Lance shakes his head and grits his teeth. _Not now, I don’t have time for this now._

Lance changes into his pajamas, and does his meticulous nightly skin care routine because no amount of Galra are going to cause him to dry skin and black heads. Um, ew. Once he’s done, he pulls out a pill bottle and stashes the rest under his sink. Shaking the bottle he looks at the back and tries to read the instructions, it’s a language he can’t understand, but sees the number 2 and figures that that’s how many pills he’s supposed to take. He shakes two pills into his hand, noticing that they are green, oblong, and gel-like. He fills a cup with water, pops the pills in his mouth and swallows them down with a gulp of water.

 Lance stares at himself in the mirror for a second after, then shuts off the light and trudges off to bed. He knows that Pidge doesn’t blame him for what happened and he knows that the others don’t either (maybe Keith does, but that’s not all that surprising), but he blames himself. He also knows that the others are tired of him always getting off topic and blurting things out, not focusing in training. He’s got to do better, at least for them, and to make it back home to his family. Lying under the covers he hopes that things will finally start to get better. That he will be a Paladin worthy of the Blue Lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks thanks thanks for reading. Thanks to my beta for reading this over and checking it for me! Heres our Tumblr's if you want those
> 
> Me: @bluespacelions  
> My beta: @andrea3441
> 
> Leave a comment if you liked it, if you hated it, if you want more chapters (I'll add more soon). Let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance goes through some adverse effects of the pills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has taken forever to complete, but here it is. It is done! I tried to keep the adverse effects of the pills as accurate as possible. Thanks to my beta for checking this for me!

Waking up the next morning, Lance does not feel rested at all. He slept okay, but he still feels tired as he makes his way to the dining hall for breakfast. He slumps into his chair next to Keith as Hunk hands him a bowl of food goo. 

“Hey, Lance. Sleep well?” Shiro asks with a smile. 

Lance looks up at him and offers a small smile, “Yeah. It was okay.”

“Pidge is out of the pod. She should be at breakfast soon.”

Lance nods and looks back down at his goo, stirring it around the bowl, taking a few small bites, but not feeling all that hungry. It is quiet for a few moments before Pigde and Allura walk into the room, Coran following close behind. Lance immediately rushes over to Pidge and wraps her in a hug. “I’m so sorry, Pidge. I promise to pay more attention. I promise I’ll have your back and won’t let you get hurt again!” Lance is near tears at this point and Pigde is mildly freaking out and slightly grossed out.

Pidge pushes him off, “Lance chill, it’s fine. I’m fine. I don’t blame you. It’s not your fault. Now please get off me.” 

“You really don’t blame me?” Lance asks as he takes a step back.

“No. Now let’s eat.” They all take their seats at the table and start eating again. Lance feeling better about the situation and vowing to always protect his teammates.

~

A few days pass with not much incident. Lance feels more focused, his outbursts are becoming less, and he’s getting snapped at less often, so he keeps taking his pills. Everything comes to a screeching halt three days into his new medication. It’s during a training session that the fight of all hell breaks out. 

“What the hell, Keith!? I had that bot!” Lance yelled, getting straight in Keith’s face and in his personal space. 

“Well, I had it first. Maybe you should be quicker with your shots!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be such a quiznacking hog and actually learn how to fight on a team and with a team!” 

“Maybe if I had a better team mate that could actually fight then I wouldn’t have to fight the bots myself.” Keith said, squeezing his fists at his side. 

Lance grit his teeth and took a step towards Keith. “How dare you! I may not be as good as you, but I can still hold my own in a fight.” 

“That’s enough! I don’t want to hear anymore fighting between you two. Keith, you need to trust Lance, and if you think he could use some help then why don’t you help him. This is a team. We help each other out.” Shiro said, coming to stand in front of the two boys with a “stern dad” look on his face. “Both of you, go cool off.”

Lance growled one more time under his breath and moved out of the training deck, purposely bumping into Keith’s shoulder on the way out. He grit his teeth and made his way down the hallway to his room where he showered, took his pills, and decided to call it a night.

The next morning, Lance woke up feeling terrible about the fight. Teammates aren’t supposed to fight like that. Friends aren’t supposed to fight like that. We have to be friends now, right? What the hell am I doing? Lance sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands. He felt like such a failure. Fighting with his teammate and not only that, but someone who he considers his friend and who he hopes considers him a friend as well. Deciding it would be best to make his way to breakfast and apologize- and hopefully Keith would accept it- Lance got up and started to get changed for the day. 

As he made his way to the dining room, he nervously wrung his fingers and couldn’t quell the anxious fluttering in his stomach no matter how hard he tried. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the room and saw that a bowl of food goo was already sitting as his place. He smiled, thinking that Hunk was nice enough to get him a bowl. “Thanks for the bowl, Hunk.” Lance said softly. He had such nice friends and he was such an asshole yesterday. He really didn’t deserve them. Lance vaguely thought it was weird that he now felt like he wanted to cry. Oh well. 

“Oh, that wasn’t me.” Hunk said, looking across the table at Lance. 

“Yeah. It was Keith.” Pidge said, right before said Paladin walked through the door with his own bowl of goo and took a seat next to Lance. Lance looked at Keith with a look of surprise on his face. 

“Oh. Thank you, Keith.” Lance spoke softly. Now he really wanted to cry. What was up with the mood swings? Keith got me food? Even thought I was such a dick to him? God, I don’t deserve these people. I really need to apologize. Reign in the tears though, first. 

“It’s no problem.” Keith said back just as softly. They both began eating. Lance started feeling anxious again as they sat there with Pidge and Hunk speaking softly across the table. Lance got himself together and turned to Keith. 

“I’m sorry for yesterday. I shouldn’t fought with you. It was stupid.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck anxiously and looked down at his knees. He noticed Keith stop with his spoon in the air, probably not expecting Lance to actually apologize. 

“It was my fault too. I’m sorry too.”

“Do you forgive me?” Lance looked up hopefully. 

“Yeah. Do you forgive me?”

“Yeah, of course.” Lance looked at Keith with was probably a stupidly happy smile, but he couldn’t even care as he turned back to his bowl. He was super happy. Keith forgave him, he wasn’t a completely horrible person and things were looking up from yesterdays fight. He finished his breakfast with a smile that wouldn’t leave his face no matter how much he tried to force it down. 

~

Another few days had gone by with no incident. Lance took his pills, trained, and went through life on the castle-ship as if nothing bothered him. Maybe that’s because nothing did. Lance didn’t feel much of anything to be honest, but he figured that was just a side effect of the medication and it would go away soon. ADHD meds are like that. Its fine. I’ll get used it. 

Lance did get used to it eventually, but his friends, his space family, were really starting to notice. 

Shiro decided to hold a meeting (“just call it a family meeting, Space Dad,” Hunk) after training ended and Lance had gone off to shower and face mask. 

“Have you guys noticed anything weird about Lance lately?” Shiro asked the group. 

“Other than the fact that he’s like a freaking zombie?” Pidge asked sarcastically while laying on the floor. 

“Yes, Pidge. Thank you,” Shiro rolled his eyes. “But, yes, that is what I meant. He is acting very weird and unLance-like.”

“It’s more like he’s acting unemotional.” Keith grumbled, glaring at the floor. 

Allura spoke up next. “The castle has been rather quiet without his outbursts and input. He doesn’t speak much at all. Shiro, how do we fix this?”

“I don’t know, Princess. We need to figure out what the problem is.”

At this, Hunk nervously spoke up. “I think I know what may be wrong with him.” Everyone turned to look at him and he fidgeted a bit under the attention. “Lance has ADHD and he acted kind of like this once when we were younger. He was on these meds that kind of made him have these weird mood wings-which, thinking about it, he did kind of have those. He went from angry to anxious to sad to super happy. It was weird- but anyway, yeah, he was on this medication and it made him act like a zombie and all emotionless.”

Coran this time, “But how would he get medication like that? We don’t have any here and we have never seen him take any medications before. Do you think he is taking medications?”

Hunk shrugged. “I don’t know if he’s taking anything, but maybe he is and he got them from somewhere. We’re gonna help him, right? We have to.”

“Of course. We need to come up with a plan to see what is going on with him. If he is taking anything, we need to get him off of it. Something is not right and we need to help our friend.” Shiro looked around at each member. 

Everyone nodded and they all worked together to come up with a plan that would be put into effect the next day. They all may get on Lance about talking too much or making jokes, but in the end, they wouldn’t have Lance any other way if they had the choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thanks to my beta for editing this. Check us out on tumblr
> 
> Me: @bluespacelions  
> My beta: @andrea3441


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's taken me forever to get this stupid chapter out. I'm so sorry! I've been having major writer's block, but I just sat down and got it done yesterday and here it is! Hope you enjoy. There will be one more chapter.

“Do you all remember the plan?” Shiro asked, looking around at the rest of the Paladins (minus Lance) and Allura and Coran. They all nodded back in response. The plan was simple. They would all go about their normal morning, keeping a close eye on Lance and watching how he acted and interacted. In the afternoon they would train, still keeping a close eye on Lance. After training, Shiro would ask Lance to stay behind to do some hand-to-hand training while Keith, Pidge, and Hunk went to search Lance’s room for anything suspicious. 

With the plan set into motion, they all headed into the dining area for breakfast. Hunk and Coran went into the kitchens off the dining area to get breakfast ready while everyone else sat at the table. Shiro and Allura discussing battle strategies. Pidge on her computer, and Keith sitting quietly waiting for Lance to come in. After a few minutes of waiting, Lance walked into the room. 

“Morning, guys.” Lance smiled softly at everyone at the table and took a seat next to Keith. 

“Hey, Lance.” Everyone, except Keith said back. Lance noticed Keith hadn’t said anything and looked over at him to see him already staring back with a slightly angry look on his face. 

“Hey there, Mullet. Don’t think too hard. You might hurt yourself.” This should have been a normal thing for Lance to say-and it was- but Keith couldn’t help but notice that something was different this time. There wasn’t as much playfulness. There wasn’t any snark. There wasn’t any kind of emotion. Keith realized that he was starting to stare, grunted, and turned to look at the table while he slouched and waited for his food. 

“Lance! Did you sleep well?” Lance turned to looked at Shiro and gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

“Yeah, it was fine.”

“That’s good.”

The table was quiet and it was obvious that the quiet was slightly awkward. The Paladins and Allura hadn’t realized how much they relied on Lance to keep conversations going until he suddenly wasn’t saying anything. The rest of breakfast went by painfully slowly until it was time for morning training. 

~

“Alright Paladins, today we will be doing some drills with out bayards and then we will focus on hand-to-hand combat. It has come to my attention that you all need more work on that.” Allura then turned to Lance with a pinched look, expecting him to complain, but was unsurprised when he just grabbed his bayard and got ready to train. With a look to Shiro, training began. 

Training went as normal as usual, except it wasn’t usual and the Paladins (minus Lance), Allura, and Coran were wondering why it had taken so long for them to notice the difference. Halfway through combat training, their plan was set in motion. A programed malfunction with some scanner in another part of the castle called Hunk and Coran away. 

~

In Lance’s room, Hunk and Coran were searching everywhere (Coran mostly searching in impractical places). Hunk went to tackle the bathroom. 

“Uh, Coran? I think you should see this.” Hunk said, pulling a bag full of what could only be pill bottles out from under Lance’s sink.

Grabbing the bag, Coran pulled out a bottle that was almost empty and a bottle that had yet to be opened. “What is it?” Hunk asked anxiously.

“This is medication from a med store in the swap moon-“

“Space mall.”

Coran rolled his eyes, “Yes, the “space mall’ as you call it.”

“What does it do?”

“Lets take a bottle back to the med room, gather the others and I can explain.”

“Okay.”

~

Ten minutes later everyone but Lance was in the med room waiting for an explanation from Coran as to what kind of medication Lance was taking. 

“Please, Coran, can you tell us what this is?” Shiro asks as soon as he walks into the room. 

“Yes, well, this medication can be purchased at the swap moon-“

“Space mall,” the paladins interrupt.

With a pinched look Coran keeps speaking, “Yes. The space mall. Well, this medication is used for calming, focusing, and general over activeness, but I am not sure why Lance would be taking this. He was fine the way he was!”

“Don’t you get it? He wanted to focus and calm down. Pidge got hurt because he got distracted. He didn’t want that to happen again. And how many times have we sighed or gotten exasperated with him over a joke or something stupid that he says.” Everyone looked at Keith in astonishment, like they honestly hadn’t expected him to come to Lance’s defense.

Hunk was the first to recover and speak, “Keith has a point. Lance has ADHD and he’s always been super insecure about it. Always trying to keep himself from being too much. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. What kind of best friend am I?” Hunk sat down heavily in one of the chairs scattered around the room. 

Shiro walked over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “We are all to blame for this. We all didn’t realize how we were treating him.” At this everyone looks down guiltily. Shiro continues, “But we know now so we can do something about it. If these meds are supposed to calm him down, then why is acting like this?”

Pidge speaks up, “Well it makes a lot of sense.” Everyone looks confused. Pidge sighs and continues, “Did Lance take ADHD medication on Earth?” She looks to Hunk for confirmation and he nods. She continues, “Well, if these are like those and he’s been acting kind of zombie-ish lately, right?” Nods around the room. “Then it is likely that he has been taking too much.”

“That makes sense. It says that these medications are supposed to calm so if he were taking more than he should then he may be too calm. This bottle says to take two, but for a human, Lance may only need one.” Coran hypothesizes. 

“Okay, then what to do we do? How do we get him to stop taking them?” Keith asks rather exasperatedly. 

“We have to talk to him, take the pills, and slowly ween him off, right Coran?” Asks Hunk, looking at Coran. 

“Yes, Hunk. We need to confront Lance. Tell him we know what’s going on and that we’re all here for him.” Coran looks around the room at each person making sure they understand. 

“So when do we do this?” Keith asks.

Shiro is the one to answer. “Tonight. After dinner.”

They all nod and with that figured out, they leave the room and go about their day wondering what they could have done differently to prevent this whole situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment, leave some kudos. Thanks to my beta for reading and editing it this chapter! Check us out on tumblr:
> 
> Me: @bluespacelions  
> My beta: @andrea3441

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Thanks to my beta for editing this. Check us out on tumblr
> 
> Me: @bluespacelions  
> My beta: @andrea3441
> 
> Also, its showing up with two different notes at the bottom and idk why. I don't have it set to do that but its doing it anyway so just ignore the second note (its from chapter 2).


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